Insulation Displacement Connectors (IDC) are a widely used connection technology in the communication industry. An IDC connector or clip performs two functions: severing or splitting plastic insulation surrounding a conductive wire to provide access to the conductive wire thereunder and frictionally engaging and/or compressing the conductive wire to provide electrical contact. In the design of an IDC clip, numerous variables must be considered in order to provide optimal clip design to achieve desired operating characteristics. As a general background, it is desirable to have an IDC clip which displaces the insulation, deforms the conductive wire and does not cut the conductive wire. Also, it is desirable to have an IDC clip which maintains a desired pressure on the deformed conductive wire and forms a contact area of a desired size. Further, it is desirable to provide stress distribution throughout the clip structure such that the conductive wire can be repeatedly terminated and disengaged therewith without the clip failing. Additionally, in the present communication industry, it is important to reduce the costs associated with the equipment. As such, the material cost and manufacturing costs associated with the IDC clip must be minimized.
Prior art IDC clips generally provide symmetric clip structures which function well but are not necessarily optimized. Examples of prior art IDC clips are provided in FIGS. 5-8. Typically, prior art IDC clips use a design and analysis method known as "beam" theory. The resulting arms or "beams" of the IDC clip define a generally symmetric aperture therebetween. The aperture between the beams allow for a degree of flexion or torquing of the beams relative to one another. One of the problems with the prior art design is that the symmetric aperture does not necessarily optimize the stress distribution of the beams and thus does not optimize the operating characteristics of the IDC clip. With regard to the "symmetric" structure, the reference is made to this term such that the aperture is symmetric top to bottom, left to right. For example, one prior art IDC clip design (see, FIGS. 7-9) includes an aperture which is generally an elongated opening having parallel side walls and a gap dimension between the bottom portion of the side walls and the top portion of the side walls being generally equal. While this construction functions sufficiently under a variety of circumstances it was not necessarily optimized for other applications.